First car / new driver please help....

Discuss which cars to get, where to get them from, tricks and traps to avoid, insurance... Also, great place for First time Car Buyers in UAE!

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First car / new driver please help....

Postby New guy Ravi on Sun Dec 04, 2011 4:44 am

Hello everyone....

To begin I would like to thank every one who is going to help me and apologise for the questions. I do realise that they are very very basic ...

I am relocating to Dubai in February and have been told that I would need to buy a car and learn driving...

Should I buy an old car and get used to driving (someone said most people crash their first car) or straight buy a new car , if old just buy a cheap trash or a reasonable car that I could probably keep for 2/3years.

Sedan /suv , suv more from a safety perspective only , I would be driving less then 40 K/ms daily and be 60-70 over the weekend all within the city...

How much money should I be looking to spend .. Don't want anything fancy ... Four seats , good air con, reliable , some resale value if I buy new ... And preferably automatic gear transition ) (e.g when we buy. A house we normally end up spending 5/6 times our annual income , I m looking indicative amounts people spend on a new car .... )

Thank you once again for reading through and for your help...

Best regards

Ravi
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Re: First car / new driver please help....

Postby root on Mon Dec 05, 2011 9:11 am

First question - Can you drive?
If yes, then you shouldn't worry too much about here. The traffic is not that bad anymore since stricter fines and rules are being enforced.

Yes, you have more speed here and larger vehicles, so if you do crash, they are of more serious nature. Hence, my advice is to get something a bit large and solid that can take the impact in case something unfortunate happens. A Toyota Vitz or Kia Soul does not have that much metal in between to provide the cushion needed.

Buying a second hand car can be a good deal at times. It depends really. A second hand Toyota does not come much cheaper than a new one in this country. An American second hand will come much cheaper, but you'll have the same problem of lower value when selling.

The second question normally is how much you want to spend on the car? There is no indicative ball-park figure in my view. You can get financing, so its really up to you if you want a 12 month or 60 month - the cost per month varies accordingly.
The only indicator I think you can use is what will it cost you on taxis if you dont buy a car. Given what you say, about 100 AED a day, which would mean around 3000 AED/month.

Third question is if you are the only driver, or your wife will also drive?
Do you have kids and need to drop/pick from school. For kids I would recommend an SUV, not only is it practical with more space, its also safer being a larger vehicle. And also with low fuel costs, this is probably one of the few places on the earth where you can still indulge in this luxury.

Tips on good vehicles to look around for within SUV category: Toyota Rav4/Fortuner/Prado, Honda CRV, Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sorento/Tucson, Jeep Wrangler - all these will be easy to sell in 2-3 years in case you want to change later on too.
Come and discuss at the most lively forums about Cars, Bikes, 4x4s...at http://www.autodealer.ae at the Autodealer UAE Forums.
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Re: First car / new driver please help....

Postby New guy Ravi on Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:44 pm

Hi Root,

Thank you for your help. I do not know driving and will learn after I come there. NO wife or kids so no school runs. But I like your ideas of an SUV and will doa bit more research on this .

Thanks once again
New guy Ravi
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Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2011 4:23 am
My Ride: I don't have one
My Profession: Finance
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